Windward House Jersey's photostream

Windward House, Le Mont Sohier, St Brelades Bay, Jersey, Channel Islands.

FACING DEMOLITION 2009 !!! PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS & INTERNET CONTACTS AND TRY AND APPEAL THIS!

NEWS ARTICLE ON PLANS TO DEMOLISH
COVER and FULL PAGE 3 spread of Jersey Evening Post 31/07/09
See the (abbreviated) online article with 49 comments underneath it at: www.thisisjersey.com/2009/07/31/plans-to-demolish-charlie... Copies of the original full page article at the Library or available on request

UPDATE 29/01/2010: www.thisisjersey.com/2010/01/29/charlie-hungerfords-house...

SAVE WINDWARD HOUSE WEBSITE - NOW LIVE! includes ONLINE PETITION ...
savewindwardhouse.tripod.com
PLEASE SIGN TO SUPPORT SAVING & RESTORING WINDWARD HOUSE www.ipetitions.com/petition/SaveWindwardHouse


APPEAL FOR PHOTOS, STORIES, CONTACTS & INFO
Please send me any of the above as there is very little information on this property! si.james@yahoo.com

OUTLINE HISTORY OF WINDWARD HOUSE, JERSEY -
* Built 1924 for local artist LE MAISTRE (see full article below)
* House, gardens + grounds open to public on numerous occasions for the Open Gardens schemes for charity.
* Used extensively for BBC TV's "Bergerac" Series 1981 to 1991


PLANNING APPLICATION - PLEASE OBJECT ONLINE!

PLEASE SAVE THE STUNNING HOUSE IN AN AREA OF OUTSTANDING NATURAL BEAUTY FROM BEING DEMOLISHED.

You can object or support online at: www.gov.je/planning
Click on “Do you want information about planning applications in your area?”
Then click: “Browse the Register of Planning Applications”
Enter Application Ref No: P/2008/2711

This is the application wording:
17 Jan 2009 Land at Windward, Le Mont Sohier - Mr T Scott. Demolition of 3 existing dwellings and outbuildings and the construction of three detached dwellings and two gatehouses. Green Zone. Ref: P/2008/2711

Comment: The wording does make it appear lose 3 gain 3 but in fact the original house with separate garage accommodation look right together (as one building and are barely detached - a wall linking them, no longer in place, can be seen in some of my photos). The existing cottages off the drive are quite a small footprint and form one building..

I have looked at length at the plans at the States offices and the proposed buildings are 3 very big properties plus the 2 gateshouses which, whilst looking innocent on paper, are quite large houses in themselves. So it is definitely 5 properties on this special site, which will be carved in to pieces purely as a money making exercise. The scheme does not answer any housing needs for the majority, as the houses will only be for multi-millionaires. They look similar to me as the Nigel Mansell house in St Brelades which many objected to overdevelopment in a sensitive area.

PLEASE SAVE THE STUNNING HOUSE IN AN AREA OF OUTSTANDING NATURAL BEAUTY FROM BEING DEMOLISHED


HISTORY OF BUILDER / CREATOR / FIRST OWNER of Windward House

LE MAISTRE, Francis William Synge 1859-1940

F.W.S Le Maistre was born in St Aubin, the son of the Rev George Le Maistre and his wife, Augusta Low, of La Maison du Coin, St Brelade. He was related to Philippe Jean. From Reading School and Brighton College he went to King’s College, London, to study medicine, but he gave it up for painting. In London he stayed with his aunt, Miss Low, but returned to Jersey when she died. In 1899, his address is given as La Maison du Coin, and in 1907, he married Alice, daughter of Colonel Le Cornu of La Hague. They lived at Graystones, St Aubin, and then at Grey Gables, which he had built at the top of Mont au Roux. He sold the house and built another, Windward House, where he lived from 1925 till his death. He left several pictures to the Parish of St Brelade.

Le Maistre exhibited at the RA between 1895 and 1927. He painted in oils, with a vigorous and colourful palette. From his studio at La Corbiere he could see the sea and rockscapes of St Brelade’s, and many of his pictures come the parish: for example, La Pulente and St Brelade’s Bay (both reproduced by the Medici Society), Corbiere Quarry, Ouisane, Noirmont Pont and La Cotte. From St Ouen’s come Vraicking at St Ouen (1937), L’Etaq, Le Pulec and Le Pinacle, and from the South Coast Elizabeth Castle (seen from La Haule, with a cornfield), View towards Fort Regent and St Helier Harour. From Sark comes a view of Havre Gosselin. There are some pure marine scenes like Storm Surf at the JMM and Seascape and Rocks, which show highly competent handling of waves. Hemming states that Le Maistre painted the Guernsey coast from the 1890s till his death.

Source: Balleine, Hemming (Thanks to the Jersey Library Staff who found this entry in Dictionary of Painters of the Channel Islands by Philip Stevens)



JERSEY EVENING POST ARTICLE page 20, 8th April 1982

Open Gardens season begins at Windward House, St Brelade

THE FIRST of the Open Garden days, held regularly throughout the summer in aid of chairty, will be on Sunday between 2pm and 5pm at Windward House, St Brelade.

The proceeds will go to Jersey Association for Yourth and Friendship, and the ground floor of the house, owned by Mr and Mrs Royce G. Martland will also be opened, with a display of natural flower arrangements.

The house overlooks the La Cotte site, the finds from which are to return to the Island shortly for display, and in the grounds of Windward House is a deep natural spring with the Dolmen de St Pierre, indicating that early man settled nearby.

The house was built in 1924 for the local artist Le Maistre, who built galleries on the north side in which to keep his watercolours.

Admission is 40p for adults and 10p for children.


JERSEY EVENING POST ARTICLE page 14, 18th May 1996

Jersey Open Garden Scheme: Windward House - of Bergerac fame
Photo Caption: Mr Martland in his gardens at Windward House where he raises most of his own plants

WINDWARD House, which is to open to the public tomorrow under the Jersey Open Garden Scheme, is the home of Mr and Mrs Royce Martland, and has achieved fame in the past through its frequent appearances in the Bergerac series as Charlie Hungerford's house.

The garden covers some 14 vergees, including the paddock, and keeps a full-time gardener occupied, as well as involving Mr Martland in about two hours work a day.

He clearly enjoys it, though, and raises most of his own plants. He enjoys the space he has available and, unlike so many Jersey gardeners, is not really restricted to what he can grow.

Indeed, since the Great Storm of 1987, a landmark in the history of so many local gardens and which cost the Martlands 170 trees, they have planted over 1,000 in the progressive redevelopment of their garden.

Mr Martland's personal favourites are camellias, fuchsias and euphorbias, only the last of the three being in season now, but there will be plenty more of everybody's favourites to delight visitors to the garden tomorrow. The lawns will be immaculate, despite the fact that ridding them of moss is by far Mr Martland's least favourite gardening task.

He would much rather be in the greenhouse taking cuttings of pelargoniums and other plants. Unsurprisingly, he is a gardener who knows exactly where to find his secateurs when the opportunity arises to snip a cutting here or there to create plans for the future.

Mr Martland's garden will be open from 2 to 5 tomorrow afternoon in aid of the Jersey Association for Yourth and Friendship. Admission is £2 with children under 12 free of charge

Any further clippings, news articles, history, contacts, photos etc are all very welcome so that we can keep a record of this house. si.james@yahoo.com